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Two clients. Same week. Same request.
Pandan.
I admitted the truth. I had no idea what it was.
Alyssa James, our Midwest Sales Rep, broke it down for me: “It looks like grass. It smells like coconut. But they want it in cake.”
To a consumer? It’s just a wellness trend. To us? It’s a formulation challenge.
We are balancing two opposing sensory cues that usually hate each other in the oven:
The Green | Anchored by cis-3-Hexenol
Usually, we hesitate to use this in bakery, it flashes off too fast. But at the right dosage? It provides that necessary fresh, vegetal “pop” that gives it the healthy vibe check.
The Brown | Natural Pandan contains pyrrolines
The risk is that they can lean “fishy” (not ideal in a sponge cake). So we lean on Pyrazines.
They replicate that signature nutty, brown warmth without the off-notes.
And that is why it works.
It offers the “health halo” of a botanical with the chemical comfort of toasted bread, chef’s kiss.
Flavor choice used to be binary: Does it taste good?
Now, the calculation is functional. Clients are still asking for taste and cost. Of course.
But their teams are also wondering: “Can we keep the green freshness without losing the warm comfort?”
Pandan does both.
We could have stuck to standard Vanillin profiles. But at Aromatech, we formulate for the contradiction. Keeping the nuttiness. Leaving the fishy notes behind.
